this week I'm going to talk about the
histogram and zebras when I used to
shoot with Canon cameras I used the
histogram a lot it would help me
determine whether or not the photograph
was exposed properly and more
importantly whether or not I'd
overexposed my highlights nowadays as
mirrorless cameras become more prevalent
a lot of them have a function on there
called zebras this is a similar tool to
the histogram because it shows you
whether or not you've overexposed the
highlights I'm going to show you each
one of them what I use and what I
recommend now if you shoot with a DSLR
you've only got the option of using
histograms but if you shoot with a
mirrorless camera you've got the option
of both if you already use zebras and
just want to see the test that I did to
see what level to set them to you to get
good exposure go to this timecode the
histogram is basically a graph on your
left hand side you have pure black on
your right hand side you have pure white
and it shows you the distribution of
pixels from pure black to pure white now
imagine this image was black and white
you'd have differing shades from pure
black to pure white now if you looked at
it with a microscope and tallied up each
of these different shades and then
plotted them on a graph this would give
you a histogram to simplify this take
this image I've created in Photoshop
I've banded it into five different
shades from pure black to pure white now
look at the histogram each of the shades
has been put on the respective places on
the graph and this is basically a
simplified version of what a black and
white image would be an image created by
the camera just has many more different
gradients of grey then if I grab the
exposure slider and push it one way or
another it moves these Peaks up or down
and this is what would happen if I
change the settings on the camera
so as you looking at the histogram on
the back of the camera or in the EVF you
can change the settings and you'll see
the histogram move one way or the other
when you get it in the middle you know
you've got a good exposure in the real
world when you take a photograph there's
lots of different combinations of
numbers of pixels one other thing that
the histogram does is show you if
anything's overexposed
so you've clipped your highlights and
lost the detail in the highlights or if
you crush the shadows so the shadows
have gone to pure black and have lost
all detail when I'm using the histogram
I just make sure it's not pushed over
too far to the right so I know none of
my highlights are overexposed when you
review your images on the back of the
camera you can flick through the display
options and get a breakdown of the
histogram into red green and blue also
with the a7 3 this is where you'll find
the blinkie's or highlight warnings this
is where the overexposed areas blink on
your image zebras are a very different
tool but they do deal with exposure when
you have them turned on you can be
looking through your EVF or the monitor
on the back you'll get these zebra
patterns on the bits that are
overexposed now the camera lets you set
the point where these zebras appear I
tend to set them to a hundred plus then
what I'll do is push the image until you
can see these zebras and then I'll click
it back until you can't see them so I
know that just within the exposure range
then I know that I've still got details
in the highlights so very quickly with
zebras you can compose the image if
you're shooting an aperture priority you
can then use your exposure compensation
dial to bring those Zebras out of the
image once they disappear you know your
highlights are safe so I did a test on
the settings of these zebras what I did
was set it to 90 then I brought my
exposure so I could see the Zebras on
the highlights and then I took a
photograph
I then dropped it down so I couldn't see
the zebras bringing the image back into
Lightroom this is the image where the
zebras were showing the Zebras were
showing in this area here but because
the level of the zebras is quite low the
image is not overexposed then the second
image is where I dropped the zebras down
so they didn't appear on the screen
anymore the shadows are quite dark in
the left-hand corner and if you bumped
up the exposure on this you'd start to
get noise in the shadows I then pushed
the zebra level up to 100 and did
exactly the same thing taking one photo
with the zebras on the screen and then I
dropped my shutter speed down to get rid
of these zebras and took another
photograph in Lightroom again where the
Zebras were showing the highlights are
still preserved as you can see here I've
dropped my exposure down and there's
lots of detail in the sky if I go to the
lower exposure where I got rid of the
Zebras there's a bit more detail in the
shadows but they're still quite dark in
this image but the highlights are
preserved lastly I set the zebras to
100-plus again I changed the settings so
I could see the Zebras on the screen on
the back of the camera and then I took a
photograph I dropped the settings down
so I couldn't see the Zebras anymore and
took another photograph back in
Lightroom the highlights are looking
overexposed you can see that doesn't
seem to be much detail in the sky but if
I drop my exposure down you can see that
there's still detail there which I was
quite surprised by if I go to the second
image where I drop the settings so there
were no zebras on the screen the shadows
are still quite dark if I was taking a
landscape or a city shot with this high
dynamic range what I would do is bracket
the shots if you're not sure what that
means click on the eye in the corner
this will take you to another of my
videos one thing that did surprise me in
doing this test was the fact that with
100 plus zebras set I thought that the
highlights would be overexposed
however in Libran I was able to bring
them back and there was still detail
there in the future I
won't have to be as cautious in bringing
them back so what I'll do is I'll get
the Zebras on the screen and pull it
back just so that my Newt bits of
highlights have a slight zebra pattern
on them then I'll have more details in
the shadows and if I bring the shadows
up I won't start to get noise in them as
much as I would if I really drop the
exposure down as I said earlier I
recommend setting them to the
hundred-plus setting and that's about it
ultimately it's up to you which one you
use if you have a DSLR to use zebras
you'll have to get an external monitor
if you have a mirrorless camera you can
use either the histogram zebras or both
the best way to work out which one's
best for you is just to try it as always
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